(Closed) Honor or Honour?

My daughter’s upcoming formal wedding is taking place in a church. According to the rules of etiquette it is acceptable to use honour (with a u) on the invitations and honor is used for less formal weddings. So is it Maid of Honour or Maid of Honor for the programs? I think we should be consistent, but I can’t say that I’ve ever seen Maid of “Honour.” What do you think?

@drsalter: I would use the “u” spelling for the “request the honour of your presence…” part and in the program use the American spelling. No one will notice. Or you can avoid the whole thing and use different wording such as “the pleasure of your presence is requested at…”.

@GreenDream: It’s acceptable to use the “u” spelling when it is a very formal wedding.

On several wedding etiquette websites it states that “honour” is reserved for a formal wedding taking place in a house of worship, British or not… We are from the south and we like “request the honour of your presence” for the invitations and “favour of a reply” for the RSVP cards. I’m just thinking about the programs….Maid of Honour or Maid of Honor??? Can’t find the answer anywhere. Thanks for all your comments.

Note the seemingly anglicised spelling ‘honour’; this derives from a ruling laid down by Emily Post in the 1920s. Other words formed in the same way, such as ‘favor’, are not similarly modified but retain their U.S. spelling.

It must be a Southern Belle thing. I have located three invitations from friends’ weddings that took place in churches. They all used “request the honour of your presence” on the invitation and Maid of Honor on the programs….Interesting!

That’s probably what we will do, even though it isn’t consistent. I don’t think a soul will even care at all!!!!

Also Neighbour, Colour, Favour, Centre, Theatre, Cheque, Draught, Traveller, and so on. Of COURSE the Canadian spellings are preferable to the American ones.

Unless, of course (or is that ‘of corse’ 😉 you happen to be American. In which case it seems to be both pretentious, and disloyal, to throw in an extra “U” here or there just to be special. There is, of course, the notion that anything British must automatically be more proper and formal than anything American, but that’s a rather degrading stereotype — to both nations. American spelling is fine and good for Americans, and Americans should take as much pride in spelling words their way, as Canadians should take in spelling words properly 😉